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Unsurprising , since less than 40% of Americans believe in Evolution , 20% don't know who we fought against in the revolutionary war , 12% don't know the Earth revolves around the sun . Our collective , national ignorance is staggering .

Oops , I goofed . The number is 20% ( one in five Americans ) , that don't know the Earth revolves around the sun ( New York Times, Aug . 30, 2005) . Less than a third know that DNA is the molecule of heredity , and most don't even know what a molecule is , other than being really small . Only 10% know what radiation is . 80% believe the government is keeping aliens under wraps in Roswell . 51% believe in straight out creationism , that is , undiluted by intelligent design .
According to the same article , only 20-25% of Americans were scientifically literate in any meaningful sense . It boggles the mind .

I am so grateful I am not in any of those percentages. My children aren't either, I know what follows is a bit wordy, but, well, I'm wordy at times.

I just got home from a longish car ride with my 9 year old son, who, when I asked him if he could name 10 body parts that have only 3 letters in the name, said he was going to say gills but realized there were more than 3 letters.

I said that humans don't have gills... but, when a human baby is developing from an egg, it goes through a stage when it has gill slits because humans share a common ancestor with fish. He said, "Tell me about the fish and humans and the common ancestor."

Oh boy. I told him about it, but I am sad to say I had to add, "Many people will think you are not making sense if you tell them we are distant cousins of fish because they don't know enough about science or evolution, and/or have been taught religious beliefs."

He said, "But the stories aren't logical." Basically, as it turns out, I tried to explain how he needs to deal with people in the percentages above in a way that a) doesn't incur their wrath, and b) is respectful,*

* I did tell him that some belief systems, such as the "Church" of Scientology, command no respect as far as I'm concerned. I told him I think he should learn about different religions and it is ok if he ends up believing. He said, "You wouldn't stop me?" I replied, "There are some things that people believe that, yes, I would do everything I could to keep them from convincing you what they are saying is true. If you eventually end up having faith in something that is helpful for you, that is ok."

He asked a lot more questions and I answered them the best I could. It would be so much easier to say," You make Baby Jesus cry when you ask questions."

The Pew Memorial Trust has for years tracked what "relgionists" (including the infamous None) with its numeroud surveys. The data is available fresh and crispy, the entire reports, and the questions too. 'Pew surveys' ought to do as a search term --

yeah, if they want to do that, they should start teaching alchemy instead of chemistry, astrology instead of astronomy and astrophysics, teach them that 2 + 2 = 5, they kids are young and stupid enough to believe all that bullshit haha